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For example, if the printer is printing a straight line that is 20mm long, but you 

notice that the extrusion seems rather bumpy or seems to vary in size, then you 

are  likely  experiencing  this  issue.  We  have  summarized  the  most  common 

causes for inconsistent extrusion, and explained how each one can be addressed.   

20.1 Filament is getting stuck or tangled   

The first thing you should check is the spool of plastic that is feeding into 

your printer. You need to make sure that this spool is able to rotate freely and that 

the  plastic  is  easily  being  unwound  from  the  spool.  If  the  filament  becomes 

tangled, or the spool has too much resistance to spin freely, it will impact how 

evenly the filament is extruded through the nozzle.    

20.2 Clogged extruder   

If the filament is not tangled and can easily be pushed into the extruder, then 

the next thing to check is the nozzle itself. It is possible that there is some small 

debris or foreign plastic inside the nozzle that is preventing proper extrusion. An 

easy way to check this is to useAnet3D printer’s control panel to manually extrude 

some plastic from the nozzle. Watch to make sure that the plastic is extruding 

evenly and consistently. If you notice problems, you may need to clean the nozzle. 

Please consult your manufacturer for instructions on how to properly clean the 

inside of the nozzle.   

Содержание E10

Страница 1: ...Shenzhen Anet Technology Co Ltd 3DPrint Quality Troubleshooting Guide ...

Страница 2: ...form is not level 8 2 2 Nizzle starts too far away from the bed 8 2 3 First layer is printing too fast 9 2 4 Temperature or cooling settings 9 2 5 The build platform tape glues and materials 11 2 6 When all else fails Brims and Rafts 11 3 Not Extruding Enough Plastic 13 3 1 Incorrect filament diameter 13 3 2 Increase the extrusion speed 14 4 Extruding Too Much Plastic 15 5 Holes and Gaps in the To...

Страница 3: ... 1 Nozzle moves too fast 28 8 2 Mechanical or Electrical issues 29 9 Layer Separation and Splitting 31 9 1 Layer height is too large 32 9 2 Print temperature is too low 33 10 Grinding Filament 34 10 1 Increase the extruder temperature 35 10 2 Print too fast 35 10 3 Check for a nozzle clog 36 11 Clogged Extruder 37 11 1 Manually push the filament to extruder 38 11 2 Reload the filament 38 11 3 Clea...

Страница 4: ...Holes and Gaps in Floor Corners 48 16 1 Not enough perimeters 49 16 2 Not enough top solid layers 49 16 3 Infill density is too low 50 17 Lines on the Side of Print 51 17 1 Inconsistent extrusion 52 17 2 Temperature variation 52 17 3 Mechanical issues 53 18 Vibrations and Ringing 54 18 1 Print too fast 55 18 2 Firmware acceleration 55 18 3 Mechanical issues 56 19 Very Small Features Not Being Prin...

Страница 5: ...to print small features 59 20 Inconsistent Extrusion 60 20 1 Filament is getting stuck or tangled 61 20 2 Clogged extruder 61 20 3 Layer height is very low 62 20 4 Poor quality filament 62 20 5 Mechanical issues of extruder 63 ...

Страница 6: ...u can click on the words under the thumbnail to jump that portion of the guide for immediate recommendations on how to resolve the issue If you are not able to locate your issues from the thumbnails scroll down and read through each section of the guide for more detail Not Extruding at Start of Print Print Not Sticking to the Bed Not Extruding Enough Plastic ...

Страница 7: ...ding Too Much Plastic Holes and Gaps in the Top Layers Stringing or Oozing Overheating Layer shifting or Misalignment Layer Separation and Splitting Grinding Filament Clogged Extruder Stops Extruding Mid Print ...

Страница 8: ...3 Weak Infill Curling or Rough Corners Scars on Top Surface Gaps in Floor Corners Lines on the Side of Print Vibrations and Ringing Very Small Features Not Being Printed Inconsistent Extrusion ...

Страница 9: ...s drained out This idle oozing can occur at the beginning of a print when you are first preheating your extruder and also at the end of the print while the extruder is slowly cooling If your extruder has lost some plastic due to oozing the next time you try to extrude it will take a few seconds before plastic starts to come out of the nozzle again If you are trying to start a print after you nozzl...

Страница 10: ... at the corners of the hot bed turn the screws clockwise and the hot bed will move down Turn a little once to increase the distance until there is enough space for plastic extrusion The distance is about the thickness of a piece of A4 Paper 1 3 The filament stripped against the drive gear Anet3D printers use a small gear to push the filament back and forth The teeth on this gear bite into the fila...

Страница 11: ...long or if the thermal cooling for the extruder is not sufficient and the filament begins to soften outside of the desired melt zone We successfully used relative diameter drill or relative diameter copper line of electric wire to unclog extruders by feeding it into the nozzle tip You need to heat the extruder to 200 when you do this Attention not hurt by the hot extruder Please contact your print...

Страница 12: ...very important that the first layer of your print is strongly connected to the printer s build platform so that the remainder of your part can be built on this foundation If the first layer is not sticking to the build platform it will create ...

Страница 13: ...eo that guide you through the bed leveling process You can find this video by visiting website www anet3d com to Download Center and download the video or watch online 2 2 Nizzle starts too far away from the bed Once your bed has been properly leveled you still need to make sure that the nozzle is starting at the correct height relative to the build platform Your goal is to locate your extruder th...

Страница 14: ...tting labeled Bottom Layer Speed For example if you set a first layer speed of 20 it means that your first layer will print 20mm s If you feel that your printer is moving too fast on the first layer try reducing this setting 2 4 Temperature or cooling settings Plastic tends to shrink when its temperature is down To provide a useful example imagine a 100mm wide part that is being printed with ABS p...

Страница 15: ... warm so that it does not shrink As a general starting point PLA tends to adhere well to a bed that is heated to 40 6 while ABS generally works better if the bed is heated to 70 100 You can adjust these settings by the control panel The specific setting process Press the knob to enter the menu and go to the Control tab confirm then go to the Bed tab confirm then turn the knob to adjust the tempera...

Страница 16: ...ick better to Kapton tape otherwise known as Polyimide film You can use temporary glue or spray on the top of their build platforms Hair spray glue sticks and other sticky substances tend to work very well if everything else has failed Feel free to experiment to see what works best for you 2 6 When all else fails Brims and Rafts Sometimes you are printing a very small part that simply does not hav...

Страница 17: ... raft under their part which can also be used to provide a larger surface for bed adhesion If you are interested in these options please take a look at Cura Tutorial which explains things in greater detail ...

Страница 18: ...ongly bonded together or not If there are gaps between the 3 perimeters then you are under extruding If the 3 perimeters are touching and do not have any gaps then you are likely encountering a different issue If you determine that you are underextruding there are several possible causes for this which we have summarized below 3 1 Incorrect filament diameter The first thing you need to verify is t...

Страница 19: ...nd this setting by turning the knob to enter Configuration Specific setting process as follows Press the knob to enter the menu choose Configuration confirm turn to motion confirm find Esteps mm tab turn the knob to adjust extrusion speed The default value is 95mm s you can change it to 97mm s that means the plastic will be extruded more 2mm s than before Try increasing your extrusion speed and th...

Страница 20: ... with your printer to make sure that your nozzle is extruding the correct amount of plastic This precise extrusion is an important factor in achieving good print quality However most 3D printers have no way of monitoring how much plastic is actually extruded If your extrusion ...

Страница 21: ...e are only a few settings you need to verify in Anet3D control panel Please see the Not Extruding Enough Plastic section for a more detailed description While those instructions are for under extrusion you will adjust the same settings for over extrusion just in the opposite direction For example if increasing the extrusion speed helps with under extrusion then you should decrease the extrusion sp...

Страница 22: ...rs To save plastic most 3D printed parts are created to have a solid shell that surrounds a porous partially hollow interior For example the interior of the part may use a 30 infill percentage which means that only 30 of the interior is ...

Страница 23: ... you have encountered this issue here are several simple settings that you can adjust to fix it 5 1 Not enough top solid layers The first setting to adjust is the number of top solid layers When you try to print a 100 solid layer on top of your partially hollow infill the solid layer has to span across the hollow air pockets of your infill When this happens the extrusions for the solid layer have ...

Страница 24: ...only 10 the remaining 90 of the interior of your part would be hollow and this would create some very large air gaps that the solid layers would need to print on top of If you have tried increasing the number of top solid layers and you are still seeing gaps in the top of your print you may want to try increasing your infill percentage to see if the gaps go away For example if your infill percenta...

Страница 25: ...Stringing otherwise known as oozing whiskers or hairy prints occurs when small strings of plastic are left behind on a 3D printed model This is typically due to plastic oozing out of the nozzle while the extruder is moving to a ...

Страница 26: ... the retraction option is enabled for your extruder In the sections below we will discuss the important retraction settings as well as several other settings that can be used to combat stringing such as the extruder temperature settings 6 1 Retraction distance The most important retraction setting is the retraction distance This determines how much plastic is pulled out of the nozzle In Cura you c...

Страница 27: ... can vary depending on the material that you are using so you may want to experiment to see if different speeds decrease the amount of stringing that you see 6 3 Temperature is too high The next most common cause for excessive stringing is the extruder temperature If the temperature is too high the plastic inside the nozzle will become extremely viscous and will leak out of the nozzle much more ea...

Страница 28: ...23 Control confirm and choose Nozzle confirm Then turn the knob to adjust the temperature ...

Страница 29: ...rior of your part is not as precise and defined as you would like As you can see in the image above the filament extruded at the top of the pyramid was not able to cool quickly enough to retain its shape The section below will examine several common causes for overheating and how to prevent them 7 1 Insufficient cooling The most common cause for overheating is that the plastic is not being cooled ...

Страница 30: ...ool before you try to deposit the next layer on top of it This is particularly important for very small parts where each layer only requires a few seconds to print Even with a cooling fan you may still need to decrease the printing speed for these small layers to ensure you provide enough time for the layer to solidify Cura includes a very simple option to do exactly that Click Advanced and you wi...

Страница 31: ...ura by selecting model Select the model Right clicking Multiply object or import a second object that can be printed at the same time By printing two objects at once you can provide more cooling time for each individual part The hot nozzle will need to move to a different location on the build platform to print the second part which provides a short relief for your first part to cool down This is ...

Страница 32: ... Most 3D printers use an open loop control system which is a fancy way to say that they have no feedback about the actual location of the nozzle The printer simply attempts to move the nozzle to a specific location and hopes that it gets ...

Страница 33: ...ue to one of the causes below Unfortunately once these errors occur the printer has no way to detect and fix the problem so we will explain how to resolve these issues below 8 1 Nozzle moves too fast If you are printing at a very high speed the motors for your 3D printer may struggle to keep up If you attempt to move the printer faster than the motors can handle you will typically hear a clicking ...

Страница 34: ...nt the motors from spinning Ideal assembly requires a belt that is somewhat tight to prevent slipping but not too tight to where the system is unable to rotate If you start noticing issues with misaligned layers you should verify that your belts all have the appropriate tension and none appear to be too loose or too tight If you think there may be a problem please consult the printer manufacturer ...

Страница 35: ...tion For example if there is not enough electrical current getting to the motors they won t have enough power to spin It is also possible that the motor driver electronics could overheat which causes the motors to stop spinning temporarily until the electronics cool down While this is not an exhaustive list it provides a few ideas for common electrical and mechanical causes that you may want to ch...

Страница 36: ... printing works by building the object one layer at a time Each successive layer is printed on top of the previous layer and in the end this creates the desired 3D shape However for the final part to be strong and reliable you need to make ...

Страница 37: ...another you need to make sure that the new layer is being pressed against the layer below it so that the two layers will bond together As a general rule of thumb you need to make sure that the layer height you select is 20 smaller than your nozzle diameter For example if you have a 0 4mm nozzle you can t go too far past a layer height of 0 32mm or each layer of plastic will not be able to properly...

Страница 38: ...ied to print ABS plastic at 190 you would likely find that the layers of your part will easily break apart This is because ABS typically needs to be printed around 220 240 to create a strong bond between the layers of your print So if you feel this may be the problem verify that you are using the correct temperature for the filament you have purchased Try increasing the temperature by 5 10 degrees...

Страница 39: ...ost 3D printers use a small drive gear that grabs the filament and sandwiches it against another bearing The drive gear has sharp teeth that allow it to bite into the filament and push it forward or backward depending on which ...

Страница 40: ...the extruder body We will explain the easiest way to resolve this issue below 10 1 Increase the extruder temperature If you continue to encounter filament grinding try to increase the extruder temperature by 5 10 degrees so that the plastic flows easier Please read Cure Tutorial or Anet3D printer Control Panel Instructions to learn how to set extruder temperature Plastic will always flow easier at...

Страница 41: ...ll be 2mm plastic less extruded from the nozzle per second Decrease only a little once to avoid Not Extruding Enough Plastic and then see if the filament grinding goes away 10 3 Check for a nozzle clog If you are still encountering filament grinding after increasing the temperature and slowing down the print speed then it s likely your nozzle is partially clogged Please read the Clogged Extruder s...

Страница 42: ... Your 3D printer must melt and extrude many kilograms of plastic over its lifetime To make things more complicated all of this plastic must exit the extruder through a tiny hole that is only as big as a single grain of sand ...

Страница 43: ...der to the appropriate temperature for your plastic Next use the Control knob to extruder a small amount of plastic for example 10mm Please refer to Tutorial of filament drawing out and push in As the extruder motor is spinning lightly use your hands to help push the filament into the extruder In many cases this added force will be enough to advance the filament past the problem area 11 2 Reload t...

Страница 44: ...kely you will need to clean out the nozzle before proceeding Many users have had success heating their extruder to 200 and then manually pulling the filament out hopefully along with any debris that was inside You can use relative diameter drill or relative diameter copper line of electric wire to unclog extruders by feeding it into the nozzle tip There are plenty of other methods and each extrude...

Страница 45: ...ng properly at the beginning of your print but suddenly stopped extruding later on there are typically only a few things that could have caused this problem We will explain each common cause below and provide suggestions for fixing the issue If your printer was having trouble ...

Страница 46: ...e nozzle so that your printer can keep extruding plastic If you try to print too quickly or you try to extrude too much plastic this motor may end up grinding away the filament until there is nothing left for the drive gear to grab onto If your extruder motor is spinning but the filament is not moving then this is likely the cause Please see the Grinding Filament section for more details on how to...

Страница 47: ...nd pulling plastic back and forth This quick motion requires quite a bit of current and if the printer s electronics do not have sufficient cooling it can cause the motor driver electronics to overheat These motor drivers typically have a thermal cutoff that will cause the driver to stop working if the temperature gets too high If this happens the X and Y axis motors will be spinning and moving th...

Страница 48: ...ide your 3D printed part plays a very important role in the overall strength of your model The infill is responsible for connecting the outer shells of your 3D print and must also support upper surfaces that will be printed on top of ...

Страница 49: ...r portion of your 3D print If you try to print the infill too fast the extruder won t be able to keep up and you will start to notice under extrusion on the inside of your part This underextrusion will tend to create weak stringy infill since the nozzle is not able to extrude as much plastic as the software would like If you have tried several infill patterns but continue to have problems with wea...

Страница 50: ...f you are seeing curling issues later on in your print it typically points to overheating issues The plastic is extruded at a very hot temperature and if it does not cool quickly it may change shape over time Curling can be prevented ...

Страница 51: ...fore it has solidified Please read the Overheating section for a more detailed description of this issue and how to resolve it If you are noticing the curling at the very beginning of your print please see the Print Not Sticking to the Bed section to address first layer issues ...

Страница 52: ...ies to move to a new location but ends up dragging across previously printed plastic The section below will explore several possible causes for this and provide recommendations for what settings can be adjusted to prevent it from happening 15 1 Extruding too much plastic One of the first things you should verify is that you are not extruding too much plastic If you extrude too much plastic each la...

Страница 53: ...ayer relies on the foundation from the layer below However the amount of plastic that is used for the print is also a concern so a balance must be achieved between the strength of the foundation and the amount of plastic that is used If the foundation is not strong enough you ...

Страница 54: ...perimeters to your part will greatly improve the strength of the foundation Because the interior of your part is typically partially hollow the thickness of the perimeter walls has a significant effect To adjust this setting click Basic and click on the Shell thickness to set the value For example if you were previously printing with 0 6mm perimeters try the same print with 1 2mmperimeters to see ...

Страница 55: ...o low The final setting you should check is the infill density You will set the value under the Fill Density tab of Basic The top solid layers will be built on top of the infill so it is important that there is enough infill to support these layers For example if you were previously using a infill percentage of 20 try increasing that value to 40 to see if the print quality improves ...

Страница 56: ...51 17 Lines on the Side of Print The sides of your 3D printed part are composed of hundreds of individual layers If things are working properly these layers will appear to be a single smooth surface ...

Страница 57: ...gth of the spool the width of the plastic extruded from the nozzle could change by as much as 0 05mm This extra extrusion will create a layer that is wider than all the others which will end up looking like a line on the side of the print To create a perfectly smooth side wall your printer needs to be able to produce a very consistent extrusion which requires high quality plastic 17 2 Temperature ...

Страница 58: ...xtrusion and temperature variation are not to blame then there may be a mechanical issue that is causing lines and ridges on the sides of your print For example if the print bed wobbles or vibrates while printing this can cause the nozzle position to vary This means that some layers may be slightly thicker than others These thicker layers will produce ridges on the sides of your print Another comm...

Страница 59: ...inging is a wavy pattern that may appear on the surface of your print due to printer vibrations or wobbling Typically you will notice this pattern when the extruder is making a sudden direction change such as near a sharp corner For ...

Страница 60: ...onal force that can cause the lingering vibrations If you feel that your printer may be moving too fast try to reduce the printing speed To do this click Basic and select the Print speed tab to set suitable value 18 2 Firmware acceleration The firmware that runs on your 3D printer s electronics typically implements acceleration controls to help prevent sudden direction changes The acceleration set...

Страница 61: ...or example there could be a loose screw or a broken bracket that is allowing excessive vibrations to occur Watch your printer closely while it is running and try to identify where the vibrations are coming from We ve had many users that eventually traced these issues back to mechanical problems with the printer so it s worth checking if none of the suggestions above were able to help ...

Страница 62: ... Your printer includes a nozzle with a fixed size that allows you to accurately reproduce very small features For example many printers include a nozzle with a 0 4mm diameter hole in the tip While this works well for most parts you may start to ...

Страница 63: ...you encounter There are several options that will allow you to successfully print these small parts We will example each one in the section below 19 1 Redesign the parts with thicker features The first and most obvious option is to redesign the part so that it only includes features that are larger than your nozzle diameter This typically involves editing the 3D model in the original CAD package t...

Страница 64: ...d you can t install a smaller nozzle on your 3D printer then you have one last option You can force the software to print these small features However it is likely that this may have some print quality consequences If you click on Advanced and go to the Nozzle size tab you can manually set the extrusion width that the software should use for your printer For example if you have a 0 4mm nozzle you ...

Страница 65: ...arts it needs to be capable of extruding a very consistent amount of plastic If this extrusion varies across different parts of your print it is going to affect the final print quality Inconsistent extrusion can usually be identified by watching your printer closely as it prints ...

Страница 66: ...ol If the filament becomes tangled or the spool has too much resistance to spin freely it will impact how evenly the filament is extruded through the nozzle 20 2 Clogged extruder If the filament is not tangled and can easily be pushed into the extruder then the next thing to check is the nozzle itself It is possible that there is some small debris or foreign plastic inside the nozzle that is preve...

Страница 67: ...y increasing the value to see if the problem goes away 20 4 Poor quality filament One of the most common causes for inconstant extrusion that we have not mentioned yet is the quality of the filament that you are printing with Low quality filament may contain extra additives that impact the consistency of the plastic Others may have an inconsistent filament diameter which will also cause inconsiste...

Страница 68: ...teeth that bite into the filament This allows the extruder to move the filament back and forth easily These extruders also typically include an adjustment that changes how hard the drive gear is pressed into the filament If this setting is too loose the drive gear teeth won t cut far enough into the filament which impacts the extruder s ability to accurately control the position of the filament Co...

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